HR's mo-st influential

It’s October: Movember is almost upon us. For those of you who’ve been living in a shed for the last few years, or hidden in the umbra of a particularly bushy Imperial, Movember is the month of November re-branded to encourage when men conspire to grow facial hair to raise money for health charities.

It’s a laudable affair, and the team behind it estimate they’ve raised over $650million since founding the project a dozen or so years ago. Corporates have got behind it too, with formal partners including HP Sauce, Speedo, Gillette and even Santander.

Maybe it’s because HR is so predominantly female – 72% of the CIPD were in 2013 – that HR’s corridors tend not to be a-buzz with conversations about handlebars and Ronald Colmans in the run up to Christmas. But we thought we’d try to shift the balance a little, in an attempt to align the world’s greatest corporate function with one of the world’s most inspired instances of charitable silliness.

That’s why we’ve spent hours slaving over a hot computer to bring you ten top HR people made silly by the addition of lip rugs. In the time-honoured fashion, here’s the countdown from 10 to 1. And yes, we have included women in our list, because a) we’re not sexist and b) they look just as funny as the men.10. Professor Sir Cary Cooper, Lancaster University Management School. Sir Cary of Cooper already has facial hair, but we think a little more would make him look even more Professorly. And maybe even get him a transfer from Lancaster to Hogwarts.

9. Christine Deputy, Group HRD of Aviva. Is she the boss? Is she a deputy? Who cares, when she’s got the kind of nose bug rarely spotted outside of a spaghetti western.

8. Laszlo Bock, SVP of People Operations, Google. He wrote the book ‘Work Rules!’ He’ll be following it up with one called ‘Mo Rules!’ when he grows this ‘tache, or at least glues two matching rat-tails to his septum.

7. Lucy Adams, Firehouse (and others). Shame Lucy’s no longer at the BBC, because if she was she could have hosted a new show called ‘Tache in the Attic. Geddit?

6. Geoff Lloyd, Group HRD, Serco. Don’t get the wrong side of Geoff. With a dashing crumb catcher like this one, he’ll probably challenge you to a duel with muskets.

5. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School. Perhaps we should change the ‘Moss’ in her name to ‘Mo Sis’.

4. David Fairhurst, SVP People, McDonalds. David seen here accepting a prize for tying squealing young women onto railway lines.

3. Valerie Hughes D’Aeth, Director of HR, BBC. The new-ish head of BBC with the kind of lip luggage best suited to a used car salesman working at Deals on Wheels.

2. Louise Smalley, Group HRD, Whitbread. Louise had better be careful ordering a latte at Whitbread’s Costa – the foam’s going to get well caught in that mouth brow.

1. Dave Ulrich, Professor, Ross School of Business. Not for the first time, Mr Ulrich shows us the way it should be done. It sounds impossible, but this snot mop actually makes him look even more distinguished. Forget the ‘Ulrich model’ – if Dave actually grew one of these boys he’d be a top model himself. Watch your back, Tom Selleck!

About the author

Andrew Baird

Andrew is the CEO of HRville. He is also Employer Brand Director of Blackbridge Communications, Editorial Director of Professionals in Law and an associate of The Smarty Train. Previously, he was the MD of TCS Advertising.